Vida En El Valle Blogs: The Latin voice of the central valley.

Before I moved to Fresno, I spent a couple sleepless nights tossing and turning in my bed in Northern Virginia, worrying about one thing: Driving on rural roads. Now, seven months later, I find that I cherish my long drives through the rural parts of the Valley.

The view from my car.

I spent a majority of my day today on those desolate, rural roads I once feared. I drove from Fresno to Hanford to cover a press conference (about 40 minutes), and then from Hanford to Kettleman City to do some more research (about 30 minutes), and then returned to Fresno (about one hour.) (Read next week’s edition of Vida to find out what I was covering!)

The view from Kettleman City.

During these long drives, I love taking in the landscape that was once so foreign to me: The flat land that is golden and punctuated only by stacks of hay, and the flat land that is  brilliant green with crops.

But I also love what these drives signify: That I’m out in small communities, far from Fresno, recording the stories of people who we don’t often enough hear from.